WAURIKA, OK -- A Waurika man is sentenced to 20 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of setting his wife on fire. Police say in June 2009 Scott Allen Black admitted he poured gasoline on his wife's head, then used a lighter to start the fire.
A jury trial began Wednesday morning and wrapped up Thursday evening. Despite the guilty verdict, his wife is still standing by him.
"Day by day, by the grace of God. Day by day," Kathryn Black said.
It's how she has coped with the past three months. It's now how her husband Scott Black will spend the next 20 years of his life. After deliberating for more than five hours, a jury found him guilty of setting his wife on fire - severely burning her face, arms, neck and chest. She now walks with injuries that limit her movement, and claims she doesn't know how she caught on fire - it just happened.
"That I can't tell you. Like I told them in there I don't remember," Kathryn Black said. "We could have been scuffling or something and the lighter lit. I don't know."
Her husband testified the same thing Thursday morning even after admitting to police he poured gasoline on her head inside the garage of their Waurika home and ignited her. Court records show just before he took a lighter to her hair he said, "If we're going to do this, lets do it right." It's a statement prosecutor say doesn't add up.
"The state's position is he poured gasoline on her and struck a lighter and lit her on fire knowing what that would do to her, and she was burned severely," Assistant District Attorney Dennis Gay said.
They are burns that will outlast any prison sentence. These scars will last a lifetime.
"I'm saying it's an accident. If anyone's guilty we're both guilty. That's the way I look at it. It takes two," Kathryn Black said.
Scott Black will have to serve at least 17 years in prison before he is eligible for parole.
A jury trial began Wednesday morning and wrapped up Thursday evening. Despite the guilty verdict, his wife is still standing by him.
"Day by day, by the grace of God. Day by day," Kathryn Black said.
It's how she has coped with the past three months. It's now how her husband Scott Black will spend the next 20 years of his life. After deliberating for more than five hours, a jury found him guilty of setting his wife on fire - severely burning her face, arms, neck and chest. She now walks with injuries that limit her movement, and claims she doesn't know how she caught on fire - it just happened.
"That I can't tell you. Like I told them in there I don't remember," Kathryn Black said. "We could have been scuffling or something and the lighter lit. I don't know."
Her husband testified the same thing Thursday morning even after admitting to police he poured gasoline on her head inside the garage of their Waurika home and ignited her. Court records show just before he took a lighter to her hair he said, "If we're going to do this, lets do it right." It's a statement prosecutor say doesn't add up.
"The state's position is he poured gasoline on her and struck a lighter and lit her on fire knowing what that would do to her, and she was burned severely," Assistant District Attorney Dennis Gay said.
They are burns that will outlast any prison sentence. These scars will last a lifetime.
"I'm saying it's an accident. If anyone's guilty we're both guilty. That's the way I look at it. It takes two," Kathryn Black said.
Scott Black will have to serve at least 17 years in prison before he is eligible for parole.
